Crucial Blood
by GabbiCalabrese
Summary: Tinsley Herondale is interested in Macon Macalister, and Macon Macalister is interested by Tinsley, but those two things are not the same. Not when seperate blood is involved. I know it sounds weird, but just read it! It's good!


**Hello my awesome readers. Yes, this is another story, but don't kill me. I need to keep coming up with fresh ideas so that I stay interested in my not-so-fresh ideas. I'll finish one of my stories eventually. **

**This story is a lot different than the rest of my fics, but don't give up on it after the first chapter, or the first few sentences. **

**The plot line is supposed to remain somewhat of a mystery, so I;m not going to give too much away, but I'll tell you that it is set twenty years into the Shadowhunter world, and names that you recognize will definitely be popping up.**

**If you have faith in my writing abilities, trust me when I say that this story will be pretty cool (: **

**Chapter one: Exsterno Peak**

Heights were never really my thing. Rip used to make fun of me for that when we were younger and I wouldn't go on the ferris wheel, but he had long since grown used to it.

"Dude, what would you do if I just pushed you, right now?"

My eyes searched for land beneath us, but I found none. We stood at the edge of Exsterno Peak, and I was terrified. My fists were balled tightly, and my jaw was clenched. When I was in fifth grade, I had discovered that _exsterno_ was Latin for _scare_.

So, Rip and I were standing at the edge of Scare Peak. The name was fitting. As I continued to stare down, all I saw was empty space. I wasn't even sure _why_ I had agreed to go with Rip to the edge. Nobody went to the edge. Unless, of course, they were stupid.

Which probably explained why I was there.

"Inevitably, the wind pressure as I fell would probably be so intense I'd implode before even hitting the ground." I finally answered.

Rip's eyes narrowed, but I could see a smirk playing on the corners of his mouth. "Remind me to smack the smart ass out of you when we get back to your house."

I snorted. "Like you'd ever be able to get close enough."

Edmund Ripples was his real name, but he had always hated it, so everyone calls him Rip. We'd been friends almost our entire lives. Everybody had always said we were the perfect contrast. It was kind of cool at first, but as we grew older it began to sound like something people would say to a couple.

I was brainy whereas Rip was...not. He wasn't exactly stupid, and I think it was more due to lack of effort. I was muscles, Rip was tall and skinny. I was rational, Rip was reckless. That's how it had always been, and somehow we found a way to balance each other.

"I didn't take you guys for the adrenaline-junky type," came a vaguely familiar voice from behind us.

Rip whirled around, but I stayed facing the open air, intent on not falling off of the peak. "Dude," he muttered quietly after a second. "It's that new freak from school."

Now, I did turn. Faber School rarely recieved new students, and when it did, the whole school made a huge spectical about it. With precisely three-hundred fifty-seven students in the combined elementary, middle, and high school, a new addition was always a big deal. Therefore, Rip knew just as well as I did that the girl's name was Tinsley Herondale, he just preferred to call her "that new freak."

She wasn't even really a freak. Rip just had an opposition to what he liked to call "wasted potential." Tinsley, in Rip's eyes, was exactly that. She had the same shiny golden hair that a lot of the cheerleaders at Faber had, but she always wore it tied back. And she wore a lot of black. It wasn't a creepy amount that made you think that in her spare time she listened to screeching music and wrote poems about blood. It was just black. Skinny jeans and v-necks and stiletto boots.

Actually, I didn't mind. I thought it was kind of...sexy. But I didn't tell Rip that. Once he blacklisted somebody, they were off his radar for life.

Now, Tinsley was leaning against one of the tall oak trees, slender arms crossed over her chest. She was wearing small, black athletic shorts that stopped well before mid-thigh, matched with a tight black tank-top. She was at least a foot shorter than my six-foot-three-inces and her green eyes were focused directly on me, guarded and emotionless. I shifted me weight from my left foot to my right and swallowed. There was something disconcerting about her gaze. And the smirk that tilted her lips. Like she was superior, better than everybody.

"This guy?" Rip replied, then barked out a chuckle. "Right. It may not be obvious, but he's panicking right now. But me, I live for this kind of excitement. And yourself?"

"Me?" Tinsley's eyes finally traveled away from me and roamed her surroundings. The dense, green woods, the orange mud, the very tip of Exsterno Peak. Then she threw her shoulders into a careless shrug. "I don't call this excitement. But really, what do I know? I'm just that new freak."

Rip's eyes widened and shock gripped his face. "I didn't mean for you to hear that," he stammered out.

I wanted to laugh at him and his lack ofsocial grace, but Tinsley beat me to it, releasing a low chuckle that had an arrogant tone that matched her smirk. I wasn't sure what to make of this girl. As far as I knew, she hadn't made a single friend in the week she had been at Faber, and she hardly ever spoke. Still, though, she had a certain coolness about her. And not the kind that most teenage girls want.

The attitude that Tinsley had was more like what you would find on a middle-aged woman who had just lost her job, her husband, and the custody of her kids. Cynical, immune to the world. I wondered if anything had happened to her that made her that way, or if she was simply born bitter. Perhaps a combination of the two.

"Listen," I told her. "There is no way you can take anything that he says to heart. He probably only thinks you're a freak because you haven't thrown yourself at him. Which is why he thinks _a lot _of girls are freaks, might I add."

Giving me a death glare worthy of applause, Rip jabbed his elbow into my side. I stumbled a little and cursed, positive I was going over the edge. Thankfully, I found my footing within seconds and kept myself planted to the ground.

"See?" Rip said, turning back to Tinsley. "Completely panicking. Anyway, if this is so boring to you, then what are you doing here?"

Rolling her eyes, she unfolded her arms and tapped the oak. "Leaning against a tree." Her gaze swung back to me. "I'm sorry. Is your friend blind?"

Sputtering a laugh, I shook my head. Freak? No. I had a feeling I could get along with this girl _perfectly._ Of course, now Rip would be even more objected to it.

"I cannot believe it," Rip gasped. "Macon, this girl could easily give you a run for your money."

One of Tinsley's eyebrows cocked up, and I explained. "Rip firmly believes that I may just be the most irritating and sarcastic son of a bitch that he's met."

Without another word, Tinsley pushed herself off of the tree and pivoted towards the forest. She looked over her shoulder for a brief second, the smirk seeming to widen, if only slightly. Then, she strode into the woods, confidence in the set of her shoulders and the slight swing of her hips.

I watched her departing form until the green and the shadows swallowed her. When I averted my attention back to my best friend, he was eyeing me warily, knowingly. I grinned, because I was positive he knew exactly what I was thinking. In this kind of situation, he could always read it on my face.

"Dude, _tell_ me you are not going to try to get into her pants. If you are, your ass is going over this cliff right now."

With a scoff I took three large steps away from the edge.

"I take that response to mean you're not going to try, right?"

"That response was because there was no way I was going to let you push me. But you are correct. I'm not going to try to get into her pants." As Rip released a relieved sigh, I added, "No try about it. Succeed. That's the word you're looking for."

"Man, why?"

My grin stretched my lips even wider. "She's hot." I began to move towards the woods, the same trail that Tinsley had just walked.

Behind me, Rip grumbled, "Wasted potential. Very definition," then jogged to catch up with me.

I almost pointed out that I thought she was reaching her potential just fine, but I didn't bother. I didn't need to, and neither did he. He knew there was nothing he could do to change my mind. Once I had my target, nobody could stop me from pulling the trigger.

**Okay, so that was chapter one! What do you think of the characters? **

**I'd like to add that EVERY aspect of this is fiction, including Exsterno Peak and Faber School and the town that they live in, though you haven't heard the name of that yet. **

**Review and tell me what you think, criticism most certainly welcome! Help me improve ;D**


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